Heather Knight Hopeful of Lord's Encore at World Twenty20 in West Indies

One of the best sides in the women's circuit, England go into the Women’s World T20 in November as favorites and skipper Heather Knight is hoping that they can repeat the heroics of Lord’s last year when they beat India to win the ICC Women’s World Cup.

“I know the West Indies will be keen to put on a great show and hopefully we can play some entertaining cricket that the fans enjoy. It would be nice if we could repeat what happened at Lord’s last summer as well,” Knight wrote in her column for ICC.

The World Cup threw up many star performers and Knight was of the opinion that it could change the landscape of womens’ cricket with many role models for young fans to look-up to. “Now though a young girl watching the ICC Women’s World T20 for the first time can look up to Katherine Brunt, Meg Lanning, Smriti Mandhana, Stafanie Taylor or whoever. There are now any number of role-models and that’s truly exciting.”

“Young girls – and boys – can watch in the ground or on TV and imagine that they too can have a career in the game, that they too can play in front of sold-out crowds, that they too can live out their dreams on the biggest scale. That’s progress and that’s truly exciting.” she wrote.

Knight was also pleased with the fact that this was the first standalone World Cup giving women’s cricket the desired space and attention. “Focusing on the here and now, we’re heading to the West Indies for the first standalone ICC Women’s World T20. We’ve been lucky enough to dovetail with the men’s game for some time – and there are pros and cons to both models – but I also like the idea that we’re standing on our two feet and putting the women’s game front and centre.”